Big Finale: Race 1 of 5 - Lake Sammamish Tri

*The Boys of Summer at 5:30am. My smile wakes up early.

The “Big Finale” has started!  I will start with a big thank you to Kevin and Anne for their hospitality.  I had a great time at their house.  A big thank you to all my friends and family who support me and ask how my races are going, and a thank you to those people who take time out of their busy day to read my race reports.  A final thank you to Hammer Nutrition for sending me the great kit.  Nothing better to showcase a breakthrough performance in than a sweet new kit.

Lake Sammamish is a huge race, rows and rows of bike racks, numerous wave starts, and plenty of tough men and women racing for the top spots.  This year the competition was just that, tough. Jonmark pulled a “bait and switch” and showed up in super fit form and Kevin and I had nearly 20 people in our age division alone.  The top two finishers of the race were from our stacked age division so it’s guaranteed to be a tough scrap.  Like I said, it was pretty stacked with competition.  Ultimately we are never deterred by the odds, because frankly the odds are always against us. 

*One wave getting ready to start

*JM and Kev stretching it out and hashing it up.

*Waiting for the prior wave, the chase was about to start

The swim started uncharacteristically rough.  I jostled around and body slammed people, or they body slammed me, all the way to the first buoy.  I actually feel a little bad because I was definitely all over a couple of people and just couldn't seem to stop running into them.  It wasn’t intentional and I am sorry.  Unless two people actually did swim a two minute swim (no way possible), I believe I had the 2^nd fastest swim of the 300+ individual competitors when all was sorted out.  I left in the second wave so I had people to chase and people to swim over and round (sorry about that too). The waves were staggered by 3 minutes so that made for some good rabbits on the bike and run.  I love to lead off the front, but I also love to chase people, win-win!

*Lots of spectators

*Rounding the bend

When I left transition I was leading one of the hungriest chase packs ever.  I had about thirty seconds on the people in my wave and we were all eating up the prior wave with unrelenting vengeance.  I am really happy with my bike split averaging over 24mph.  It was painful, but I kept on the attack all the way to the turn around.  JM took a wrong turn on the bike and slipped away from the lead of his heat near the turnaround, bummer.

When I made the turnaround I had caught all but one remaining prior wave rider.  There was a fantastic feeling going through my body knowing that with every rider I passed I was erasing the entire three-minute stagger.  That’s as close to instant gratification as possible.  Near the end of the bike my legs protested a little and two riders caught up.  We traded spots for a while and went into transition together. 

A group of runners, two others and myself, left transition ready for a total dog fight on the run.  We had a previous wave racer about a minute ahead, us three drilling each other for the win, and Jonmark quickly closing to our group.  We absolutely drilled the pace and quickly caught and passed the last of the prior wave rabbits.  It was punishing, but none of us were willing to relent the pace or the pressure on each other. Our group ran together just behind the bike that was serving as the leaders' escort. The winner of the race was going to come from our group, it came down to who was going to have the fastest run split.  I, of course, was the baby boy of the group, but I wasn’t scared.  I kept telling myself “You are a run machine now, so let’s do it.”

*It's time for a dog fight.  Btw, "dog fight" is a term from my wrestling days.

The three of us ran stride, for stride, for stride (three wide) and focused on punishing the others.  The fact that the three of us ran together was an exciting feeling. It is, however, a tough spot mentally to be, you really have to be a strong person to stay in a fight that is red-hot like that.  I briefly had doubts that crept in “these guys are running too fast, can I stay with them?”  I kept with it and stayed in the moment. The pace was fast, easily a six flat to high 5 minute per mile pace for the first mile.  The pace lifted to what seemed to an invisible speed as my legs turned as fast as they could go for a distance run. I wasn’t backing down from this. The pace was, in fact, too hot as one of our trio imploded and fell off the pace and out of the group.  At that point it became two guys going for the win. Hip to hip, we continued to run. 

After Jonmark went off course on the bike he ended up slightly behind the leaders of our wave.  JM is the run master and he joined our group as the other guy imploded.  Being in another heat, I wasn’t all concerned about my run-idol, JM, beating me because if we were side by side I had the three-minute stagger in my favor (the poor guy went off course).  I did want to run with him however.  Our group of three stuck together briefly as we navigated the ankle-breaking, twisting trail.  At the two-mile mark JM and Francis (the leader of the race at this point) had gapped me at about 4 steps as we all barreled down the trail towards the park running insanely fast.

We wound, ducked, dipped, and grooved our way to the finish.  Francis ended up winning, I didn’t have the surge I needed to get close enough to set up the finish sprint.  He is a great racer.  Just the honor to be up running with JM and people like Francis is new for me.  I win from the swim and bike, not usually the run.  JM is run-machine, I would say at this point I’m a little run Dust Buster (jus’ a lil’ guy).  Running with JM, however briefly it was, was a dream come true for me.  I am not ashamed to say I look up to JM and train thinking about “running like JM.”  Part of being a man, and being secure in yourself is giving credit when credit is due. Being able to be up front with the best runners in the field and being so close I could read the bottom of their shoes is sooo promising.  It is motivating and humbling in so many ways to know I have come so far, but I still have so much more to do. 

*The Murder Machine and JM's bike after the bike portion

*Kevin looking strong

*Sit back and let the master do his craft

*Lil' Dust Buster on the move  :)

*Finished

*We ran so hard

I won’t complain about 2^nd overall. That was my 5^th straight race finishing in the top two, I am happy with that.  I would prefer to be the bride (winner) versus being the bride’s maid (runner up) but what the hey, it’s all gravy!! I was close to the win and that is promising.  In the end it doesn’t really matter who wins.  We all gave our best, annihilated each other during the race, and then laughed about it after.  JM had a great run to finish 5^th despite his issues.

We are all insanely lucky people to share moments like this and have bodies that will do this sort of thing.  It isn’t an easy lifestyle, but it is who we are and that is what brings us all together.  It was great to share the day with Kevin, JM, the 300 racers and the BUDU crew.  

*Hey hey we're buddies, lol

*Anne said, "Give me an action pose."  Thanks to Hammer for the kit!

*I told Kev to "Kick from here!"  He did it like a champ and floated to the finish.

*The Budu Crew, some of the nicest people I have ever met

*One of the most special things about triathlon is we will try to tear each others legs off and run each other to death, and then smile like we just won the lottery.  There is a special bond formed when we are so unrelenting in our focus to win.  We all try our best to win, but in the end we have nothing but respect for each other.

*Deanna of Budu Racing pulled in for the side hug

*Anne set out Kevin's kits.

Anne was a total trooper and took the pics for this post.  She got up early to cheer for us and it was much appreciated. Kevin had to take care of some work stuff so I spent some extra time with Anne this weekend, which was nice.  One really cute thing she did that I noticed was that she set out Kevin’s kits the night before so he wouldn’t have to rush around in the morning, so cute. 

It was a fantastic day. The only thing that would have made the race better, as JM and I discussed after the race, was if Leanne and Jodi could have attended the race.    We both missed our girls.  Let’s face it, the awards were just not the same when JM and I had to be each other’s arm charm.  We want the girls back, they are a great part of the race adventures.  Jodi scored some points by waking up at 5am to tell me good luck and that she was thinking of me.  J

*Just not the same...

Secretly, deep down inside, there is a part of me that is so fierce and so competitive, that I would rather have a race-brawl like this and possibly end up 2nd, than to have an easy victory. I love to win, but I also love to train and race in situations when I have to ask myself "How much do you want this?"  I am happy with what I saw today.  

How much do you want this?